Last 3 months headlines – Page 1315
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Insurer blames solicitors’ fees for referral controversy
The head of claims at car insurance giant Admiral has claimed that solicitors’ fees are to blame for the continuing row over referral fees. The comments were made as claimant lawyers reacted with fury this week to new figures published by the Association of British Insurers, ...
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Off the wall
London firm TV Edwards has commissioned this intriguing mural to celebrate the opening of its new offices in Whitechapel. The painting, on Mile End Road, stands on the Olympic Highway and was designed by artist Mychael Barratt. It is packed with famous folk with a ...
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Whitehall plans to scrap AJTC ‘perverse’
Government plans to scrap the Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council are ‘misguided’ and ‘perverse’, the body’s chair has told the Ministry of Justice. Responding to the consultation proposing the abolition of the AJTC, Richard Thomas said the independent body, which reviews the administrative justice system and ...
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UK lawyers stumped in Barbados
On the subject of lawyers and sport, Obiter can report that the British Lawyers’ Cricket World Cup squad has returned from Barbados, though the team were apparently a touch disappointed not to have been met by an excitable press pack on landing at Gatwick. The ...
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Unite campaign backs public service interpreting
Trade union Unite is to launch a campaign to support public service interpreting and ensure that properly trained translators are used by criminal justice agencies.
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Family law
Obiter loves a good legal wedding, so congratulations to Ann Thomas and David Hodson, managing partner and finance partner respectively of London firm International Family Law Group, who have just tied the knot. They founded their niche West End firm in 2007 with ...
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Banks pledge to help with cashflow problems
Four high street banks have agreed to help law firms that are experiencing cashflow difficulties resulting from the ongoing delays in payment from the Legal Services Commission, following a request from the Law Society. Chancery Lane wrote to banks to alert them to the problems being ...
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War on words
Joining the recent crusade against verbosity within the profession is Bob Miller, associate at Fentons in Manchester. He tells Obiter that he detests it when lawyers use ‘the same’ instead of ‘it’, for example by writing, ‘We look forward to receiving the same’. ‘By return of post’ is a phrase ...
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Book offers many compelling insights into the use of legal terminology
It’s always a pleasure to find that a publisher has sent me a book for review. Sometimes the pleasure evaporates as soon as I open the packaging: polemics and monographs are not my favourite bedtime reading. My heart also tends to sink when I find ...
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This sporting life
Apart from a note at the Law Society’s School of Law about the bar being there to promote ’social intercourse’, there was also the Solicitors Articled Clerks’ Society (SACS), writes James Morton. The latter, if I recall, had a tie with a donkey’s – or probably ass’s – head ...
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New suitability test will be a cornerstone
With a move to a system which is based on principles rather than rules, it becomes even more important that we ensure only those who can meet those principles enter the legal profession. I have always taken a keen interest in legal education and training as ...
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E-petition lodged calling for tighter tenant deposit protection
A solicitor has lodged an e-petition urging the government to strengthen the law protecting residential rent deposits paid by tenants to landlords. Tenancy deposit protection legislation, introduced by the Housing Act 2004, was designed to protect tenants against unscrupulous landlords who refused to return deposits at ...
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Tragedy of council legal head ‘unable to cope’
A senior local authority solicitor committed suicide because he was unable to cope with the demands placed on him following a 30% cut to his department’s budget. In the wake of the tragedy, the chair of Solicitors in Local Government (SLG) has warned that redundancies in ...
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Legal training falls short on will drafting
We are fortunate to have had some extremely competent trainees in recent years. However, even those who have taken the wills option at law school come poorly prepared to advise a client and draft their will. A current trainee has shown me ...
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Let go of the dead hand of regulation
I have just read Ronnie Fox’s piece ‘Strangulation by regulation’. How right he is. The dead hand of regulation is burdensome and unthinking changes bring little benefit and great aggravation. The Solicitors Regulation Authority should think again and the Law Society should do more to challenge ...
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From clients to ‘consumers’?
I read the article by Charles Plant with a sinking heart as I found the repeated reference to ‘consumers’ depressing. I was brought up to believe that solicitors belonged to a profession that provided a service. I try to provide such a service, from which I ...
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Apprenticeships make sense
If the cost of being a law student is as high and burdensome as people say it is; and if sitting the LPC is an expensive ‘punt’ at a career, why not introduce a solicitor apprenticeship (‘student solicitor’) scheme? This might copy the FILEX programme, ...
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Taking responsibility for our brand
Shalaleh Barlow correctly identifies the need to emulate the service ethic in retailing, but misses the point of the Solicitors from Hell website. This attacks the brand of ‘solicitors’. I have spent three decades trying to market this brand only for it to be tainted time after time by the ...
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Established procedure was simply ignored during riot hearings
by Joseph Wright, a solicitor-advocate at Hodge Jones & Allen This is not an article on the law of bail and sentencing guidelines; just my experience of the night of 11 August.
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The right to televise court hearings - is it in the public interest?
The Sun King’s crown may be tarnished, but the influence of Rupert Murdoch’s empire continues to weigh on government policy. That’s one interpretation of Ken Clarke’s announcement that cameras will be allowed into courts. It came less than 24 hours after Sky News renewed its demand for court proceedings to ...